At climate talks, UN chief rejects warming doubts

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DOHA, Qatar — Pointing to the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy and other weather disasters this year, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations told an international climate conference Tuesday that it was time to ‘‘prove wrong’’ those who still have doubts about global warming.

Ban, addressing delegates at the annual UN climate talks, said time is running out for governments to act, citing recent reports showing rising emissions of greenhouse gases, which most scientists say are causing the warming trend.

‘‘The abnormal is the new normal,’’ Ban told environment ministers and climate officials from nearly 200 countries. ‘‘This year we have seen Manhattan and Beijing underwater, hundreds of thousands of people washed from their homes in Colombia, Peru, the Philippines, Australia.’’

‘‘The danger signs are all around,’’ he said, noting that ice caps are melting, permafrost thawing, and sea levels rising.

Delegates at the two-week talks that are set to end Friday are discussing future emissions cuts and climate aid to poor countries, issues that rich nations and the developing world have struggled to agree on for years.

In Doha, developing countries have criticized richer nations for not promising higher emissions cuts and not giving any firm commitments on how they plan to scale up climate aid to $100 billion by 2020, a pledge they made three years ago.

Ban told reporters after his speech that richer countries, including the United States, ‘‘should take leadership’’ on climate change because they have the resources and technology to address the problem.

Governments represented at the Doha conference have started talks on crafting a global climate treaty that would take effect in 2020. They are also discussing how to rein in greenhouse gas emissions before then, partly by extending the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty limiting the emissions of most industrialized countries that expires this year.

The United States never joined Kyoto, because it did not cover emerging economies such as India and China, which now has the world’s highest carbon emissions.